Interstate demand for southern weaner sales cattle hinges on NSW, Queensland rain

Northern NSW and parts of Queensland, including the south-east, will require significant rainfall in the coming weeks to bolster interstate confidence, as cattle buyers grapple with a steady increase in freight costs.

Commission buyer Duncan Brown, Albury, NSW, buys cattle on behalf of several backgrounders in northern NSW, and said while his bag was packed to attend sales, his orders to purchase cattle would depend on the weather outlook in the coming weeks.

"It's got to rain over Christmas for those buyers to want any cattle," he said.

"What they call their red country is very good because it's lighter soil and doesn't need as much moisture, but the black country definitely needs rain.

"No matter where you are, when you get to 40-degree days, you need rain otherwise it just burns off."

He said buyers were "astounded" by increases in freight to truck cattle out of the saleyards, driven by increases in the price of diesel in the last 12 months.

"It's $2 a kilometre extra compared to last year, so say if you're going 1000 kilometres that's an extra $2000 alone or $20 a steer or heifer," Mr Brown said.

Queenslander George Cummins, a livestock buyer with Mort & Co based at Toowoomba, Qld, said northern buyers often turned to the Victorian weaner sales to buy large runs of even cattle.

"We look for continuity and these sales offer exactly that," he said.

"We've had rain up here, but we need a good follow up before people get too excited."

The company runs the Grassdale Feedlot at Dalby, Qld, Australia's largest feedlot with 78,000 cattle.

The company also runs a fertiliser arm, repurposing manure from its feedlots, along with a trucking and stockfeed division as well.

"There is still a fair bit of uncertainty with market fluctuations, so in 2024 we'd like to see a market without so many variations in the price throughout the year," Mr Cummins said.

South Australian buyer Andrew Whan, Miller Whan & John, Mount Gambier, SA, said parts of the lower south-east of the state had experienced a "pretty-normal" year after a short and dry spring.

"We buy cattle for restocking grass finishers and backgrounders at the western district sales and we'll be looking to do the same again this time," he said.

"Most of the people we buy cattle for depend on these sales each year because many of them are set in their patterns and return to buy the same cattle."